2012 Draft Thursday, June 28th: Raptors select Terence Ross

[mcHAPPY]

Fair enough. And not my expectations, but rather what I expect will be the expectations placed on him by fans of whatever team drafts him. His game just isn't finished enough yet to come in and be the savior of some pathetic (or lucky) team, as some articles have been making him seem destined to be. Especially on the offensive end.

Agreed. The majority of the best have needed time. It is a rare player that changes things immediately (Duncan, LBJ come to mind of recent history).

[planetmars]

Agreed. The majority of the best have needed time. It is a rare player that changes things immediately (Duncan, LBJ come to mind of recent history).

And even Duncan had a healthy Robinson. I doubt Duncan on his own would have transformed San Antonio that quickly if Robinson was not there already.

Cleveland missed the playoffs during Lebron's rookie year (were 9th in the conference in 2003/2004).

My point is that one potential super star rookie may not have the impact that you would expect in their rookie year unless they are already surrounded by great talent (like Duncan was).

[NoPropsneeded]

Demar is actually only a little over two inches taller than Mayo and 6'4.25 IMO is not too short to play sg plus he actually has a higher hops than Demar. Mayo's no step is 30.5, Demar's is 29 and max vert for Mayo is 41 while Demar's is 38.5 although Demar does has 3 inch wider wingspan with the verticals it almost evens out and if you want to talk about defending well Demar may have the tools to be a better defender but he just doesn't use them as well.

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/O.J.-Mayo-238/

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Demar-DeRozan-1319/

He was 3rd or 4th overall in 08 and he isn't even considered close to an all star. He might be a little better SG due to better ball handling and shooting but he isn't a major upgrade at all. And Defense you can sure as hell bet that it will get better with dwane casey as the head coach. Down the road i guarantee DeRozan will become a better player and if he doesn't I'll admit I was wrong.

[Raptorsss]

Bayless is essentially a better version of Lilliard (now and when he came out of Arizona). So, are people saying they'd choose Marshall sacrificing scoring, aggressiveness and speed in favour of someone who's a better passer? Dragic and Bayless are the two best point-guards available this off-season I hope we can re-sign him.

[ReubenJRD]

Dragic, Bayless, Lillard.. Any one of them I'd be totally happy with. Oh yeah, Marshall big time I would be VERY happy with.

[Miekenstien]

i think marshall might have a better offensive game then advertised. the nc games i watched he didnt seem to not know when to shoot and he didnt miss layups and he never went 0 for something.

[saints91]

i think marshall might have a better offensive game then advertised. the nc games i watched he didnt seem to not know when to shoot and he didnt miss layups and he never went 0 for something.

Marshall is pretty good, but I don't think he has the athleticism to be a good defender in the NBA. We would all be bitching like we do with Calderon. I would love to see Craft on our team. He has the athleticism and has great defensive fundamentals. Him and Casey would be BFF's.

[WJF]

Marshall is pretty good, but I don't think he has the athleticism to be a good defender in the NBA. We would all be bitching like we do with Calderon. I would love to see Craft on our team. He has the athleticism and has great defensive fundamentals. Him and Casey would be BFF's.

I am a big fan of Craft as well, too bad he is not coming out this year, our early second round pick could nab him.

[Raptorsss]

Look at it this way, Marshall is being compared to Andre Miller, similar size, intelligence and limitations. Sorry, even in his prime I wouldn't want Andre Miller running my team.

[Joey]

Look at it this way, Marshall is being compared to Andre Miller, similar size, intelligence and limitations. Sorry, even in his prime I wouldn't want Andre Miller running my team.

I prefer the comparison of a modern day Mark Jackson. Which I've heard far more consistently.



And I'd say Andre Miller is probably one of the most underrated Point Guards EVER. Dude knows how to run a team, and he knows how to win.

[Joey]

During halftime of the National Championship, CBS played an interview with Barack Obama, in which the President said that he felt Marshall is one of the best point guards in the country. Marshall took to Twitter to respond. It was awesome.



HAHAHA

I want him SO much more now. This is f*cking GOLD.

[NoPropsneeded]

whats so cool about that? i could have made up OBreezy in my sleep

[ReubenJRD]

I prefer the comparison of a modern day Mark Jackson. Which I've heard far more consistently.



And I'd say Andre Miller is probably one of the most underrated Point Guards EVER. Dude knows how to run a team, and he knows how to win.

+1

He can defend his own position very well. Kendall Mashall would be a very good quarterback. But who says he can't be more?

[bounty]

Andre Drummond

This is not a post to say that Andre Drummond definitely deserves to be the first pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. Anthony Davis appears to have it on lock for a number of good reasons, he appears to be a special prospect with an aggressive style of play. There are other prospects who you could claim might be more likely to play at a high level in the NBA. Drummond is easily the most rare athletic specimen in this draft (yes, he is), but he competed far below expectations and did little to show he wanted to be great.

The thing is, I still think on the whole he is not a lost cause. He showed flashes of just how much of a match-up problem he could be on both ends of the floor. He was a skilled offensive rebounder and he usually guarded the other teams best offensive big man. Plus, when you look at the past history of the center position to have played college basketball, Andre's freshman season in perspective was not even close to as bad as many believe.

From 1995-2005, a huge number of basketballs best big men went directly to the NBA from the high school ranks. This is when drafting based on potential became incredibly popular and almost a must. You could either choose the proven players who had developed physically and mentally with time in college, or choose a player who could need time to develop but could end up being greater.

Many people say that HS players cost GM's there jobs, but on the whole I do not think that was the case. Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Jermaine O'Neal and Tracy McGrady were if anything, drafted much too low. Even with the 1998 HS class thought to be relatively weak, Al Harrington and Rashard Lewis ended up being undervalued significantly as well.

I could go on with the history of HS players, but I will give you a list of those who were significantly overvalued:

Jonathan Bender (Though injuries killed him)
Kwame Brown (Who, to be fair, was a pretty surprising choice. He was ranked behind Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry by most HS publications, but Mike liked him)
DeSagana Diop (Had no offensive game to speak of. Still makes money as defensive/rebounding guy)
Ndubi Ebi (Who was a late first round pick, which is always a cr@p shoot according to getting much production)
Shaun Livingston (Again, injuries. Seemed like a very promising PG prospect)
Martell Webster (Definitely should not have been the 6th pick, but still at the very least a decent role player)
Not many players in the grand scheme of things. My point of showing this is that drafting on potential has not been even close to the killer that many people claimed it was with HS players. To be honest, I do not think it has been with one and done guys either.

Now I want to bring up Drummond. He did little to blow most people away his freshman year. Most people say he had "a bad year". Well, he definitely was not dominant on the whole and has a lot to work on. His free throw percentage was just incredibly bad. He seemed to have little concept of where to be on the offensive end at times, plus he was not even close to aggressive enough on the defensive glass. Truly, it is hard to see a killer instinct or a mean streak that many see in the dominant bigs of our time.

What I will say is, even if Drummond never is a franchise big man that many would love to see with his combination of size and athleticism, I think he warrants a very high draft pick. People bring up DeAndre Jordan when talking about Drummond, which I do not agree with, but I see similarities. They were both highly thought of, long, athletic, big men with raw offensive games.

Well, with the Jordan example, once thought to be a lock for the top 5, than lottery, he ended up slipping to 35th in the very deep 2008 draft. People look at this and say, "well, why is Drummond not going to suffer the same fate?" Simple, DeAndre Jordan, for as limited as he was and as many question marks that he possessed, went way too low in the draft. I mean, does Jordan not bring more value at this point than Jason Thompson, Anthony Randolph, Kosta Koufos, Robin Lopez and Alexis Ajinca? Jordan was not the only player undervalued in 2008 (Nikola Pekovic is making a great case for himself as well as others), but he went far too low.

Now, that was a draft that I think was incredibly deep at guard and much deeper than this current draft. Plus, it had a number of solid center prospects that this draft simply does not. Even if you like Meyers Leonard, the Zellers or Fab Melo, I think the relative consensus is that it would still be hard to pass over Drummond for any of those centers. Not to mention, I feel Andre has a great deal of strength and athleticism that Jordan still does not have to this day.

As people tend to have labelled Drummond a bust in the making, I want to know:

Where would you take him in the 2012 Draft?
My feeling is, it is incredibly hard for me to see him slipping beyond the 3rd pick or so. I think you have to take the gamble and in the end, I am fairly sure that if Drummond stays healthy, he does not cost you a job. The NBA has an absolute shortage of solid centers, not to mention players who you could see having the body to handle the dirty work down low. Andre Drummond, even with a perceived lack of toughness, to be at the very least a player you do not mind having in the middle as a starter.

He is definitely a high risk, high reward pick, but for a league without many centers who come close to his natural ability, I find it hard to believe he will not at the very least be one of the more valuable commodities in this draft over time. If you look at other NBA centers who have played college basketball, many of them struggled even more so there freshmen year. Heck, Fab Melo was seen as a top 20 pick for improving to a point below the major numbers Andre Drummond put up in the same conference.

I can very much understand why people are apprehensive about Drummond living up to his vast potential. Skill set wise, there are players who are well in front of him. But, the NBA is a league where size thrives, especially when that size has the speed to keep up with the pace of the NBA game. In a league where 22 players defined as centers are averaging over 10 ppg, only 14 of those over 12, I feel Drummond could end up being at the worst a middle of the pack starting center. He may never be a center you can run your offense through, but I do not think he will be a liability at either end. To me, combined with his obvious physical gifts, that floor is enough to make a case for Andre Drummond going as high as 5nd in this upcoming draft.

[Chr1s1anL]

+1

He can defend his own position very well. Kendall Mashall would be a very good quarterback. But who says he can't be more?

He is actually a poor defender. He won't hang with the guards in this league. He will actually be Jose 2.0 but a lil more risky.